Easily folded and squeezed plastic paste tube

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a technique to make soft plastic paste tubes, popular consumer products of daily life, foldable and easily squeezed. The feature is to apply adhesive material in segments with protection films in an adhesive zone on the external surface of a plastic paste tube, from the head to the tail. The central line of the adhesive zone intersects the middle point of the tail end of the paste tube. When paste is consumed to a certain point, flatten the tail end, push the remaining paste toward the head, tear off a protection film to reveal an adhesive segment nearest to the tail end, and then fold up the flattened section forward 180 degree so that the flattened tail is glued onto the tube surface where the adhesive segment is located. Thus it prevents the folded section from stretching back out due to the plastic&#39;s tendency and squeezing pressure of consumers. As the amount of remaining paste decreases, keep flattening and folding repeatedly. The paste is, therefore, pushed forward and as a result, squeezing paste becomes easy and smooth from the beginning to the end, until the tube is depleted. The purpose of this invention is to make the usage of existing paste products with plastic tubes as easy and convenient to use as malleable metal tubes, which are now rarely manufactured.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Not Applicable

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

Not Applicable

SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

This invention relates to soft plastic paste tubes that can be easilyfolded, allowing the paste inside to be conveniently squeezed out.

2. Prior Art

Many current paste products, such as toothpaste, Silicone Sealant,Adhesive Caulk, etc., are contained in soft plastic tubes. Compared tothe malleable metal tubes often used in the past, the soft plastic tubeshave obvious advantages, but one disadvantage is that it is inconvenientto fold a tube made out of soft plastic from its tail end and have itkeep the internal pressure high enough to push paste out when the tubeis partially filled.

SUMMARY

This invention is to solve the said disadvantage by applying adhesivematerial on surface of a soft plastic paste tube and make it easy tofold up and hold its shape; therefore, allowing the paste inside thetube to be conveniently squeezed out until the tube is expended.

DRAWING—FIGURES

FIG. 1 is the external structure of a paste tube.

FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a folded paste tube.

DRAWING—REFERENCE NUMBERS

-   1 Adhesive segments, covered with adhesive material and normally in    the shape of a square-   2 Protection films on 1-   3 Surface of paste tube-   4 Adhesive zone where 1 is located-   A Indicates the side view direction

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technical scheme of this invention is illustrated in FIG. 1 to 3.Adhesive material is applied, in multiple segments called adhesivesegments 1, on the tube's outer surface 3 in adhesive zone 4 along theaxis of the central line of zone 4, from head to tail. The central lineof 4 intersects the middle point of the tube tail end as shown inFIG. 1. Adhesive segments are covered with protection films 2 as shownin FIG. 2. When paste is consumed leaving the tube partially filled,flatten the tail section of the tube by pushing paste forward and tearoff one of 2 that is near the tail to reveal a 1, and then fold up theflattened tail by 180 degrees toward the head onto 1 so that the foldedsection is attached onto 3, thus preventing the folded section fromstretching back out due to the plastic's tendency and squeezing pressureof consumers. It keeps the tube in a state that is similar to that of afull tube. Repeat above steps, until all the paste is consumed.

This invention makes the use of present plastic tubes as convenient asmalleable metal tubes in the past. As the amount of paste remainingdecreases, continue flattening and folding repeatedly starting from thetail so that all of the paste can be squeezed out easily and smoothlyfrom the plastic tube.

FIG. 3 demonstrates an example of a plastic paste tube after the firstfolding. The number of folds, adhesive segments and protection films, aswell as the sizes and shapes of adhesive segments and protection films,need to be adjusted based on the dimensions of the particular pastetube, stiffness of plastic that the tube is made of, type of materialfor protection films, convenience of usage and external design of thetube.

There are two possible implementations: One is that the adhesivematerial with protection films are manufactured on the tube surface; theother is that dual-sided adhesive bandage with protection films areprovided separately and consumers can apply them on the outer surfacesof a paste tube at their own will.

(1) Adhesive Material Manufactured on Tube Surface

An example of manufacturing adhesive material directly onto the tubesurface is shown in FIG. 1. Four adhesive segments are used to fold apaste tube up to four times. Protection films are used for protectingthe four adhesive segments accordingly. Tear off a protection filmbefore folding it up. As shown in FIG. 2, the torn edge of the firstprotection film is near the tail of the paste tube. The torn edge of thesecond protection film holds down the torn edge of the first one so thatthe torn edge of the second one is automatically lifted when the firstone is torn off, and therefore, the second protection film can be easilytorn off later. The same process is applied to the third and forthprotection films. The purpose of the square shape of the adhesivesegments is to enhance the effectiveness of adhesive material and toreduce the amount of adhesive material used.

(2) Dual-Sided Adhesive Bandage

Different from implementation (1), the adhesive material is notmanufactured directly onto the tube, but an adhesive bandage is providedseparately. Consumers can put them on the tube before using the paste.More specifically, one full side of the bandage is filled with adhesivematerial and covered with a full protection film, and the other side iscovered with the said adhesive segments. This can then be put onto thetube's surface. Before using the paste, tear off the full protectionfilm and then glue the adhesive bandage in the said adhesive zone on thesurface of the paste tube. After this point, the process is the same asdescribed in implementation (1).

1. An easily folded and squeezed plastic paste tube comprised of a tubeand the contained paste, adhesive segments 1 which are applied in theadhesive zone 4 on the external tube surface 3, and protection film 2that covers the adhesive segments.
 2. The adhesive segments andprotection films of claim 1, wherein said segments 1 and films 2 arelocated between head to tail of the said tube 3 and along the axis ofcentral line of said adhesive zone 4 intersecting the middle point ofthe tail end of the said tube.
 3. The adhesive zone of claim 2, whereinthe width of said zone 4 is less than ½ perimeter of tube section, itslength is shorter than that of the whole tube.
 4. The protection filmsof claim 2 wherein films 2 can be made into multiple segments along theaxis of said tube, but said segments should be limited to
 50. 5. Theadhesive segments and protection films of claim 1, wherein said segments1 and said films 2 are either manufactured on said tube surface 3, orattached onto said tube surface 3 by a consumer before using the paste.